Pulled Apart
by Mate-4-Life
Summary: This is another Collaboration Fanfiction, this time with my friend Kyrsten  xX-LK-Xx . She writes Tia's point of view, while I will write Jamie's. Though the first Chapter is written together.
1. From The Beginning

A/N: Hellllloooooo

This is our fan fiction

Yes ours being Lizzy and Kyrsten.

Credit to Ryan for the spell in this chapter XD

:-{) ßthis is Sirius black with his curly moustache.

Tia opened the door to the room of requirements and saw her brother, Jamie. He was standing behind a table mounted with a large birthday cake, alight with eighteen candles.

'Yum yum!' She said, ginning widely and rubbing her stomach.

'Happy eighteenth sis.' he wished.

'Same to you,' she replied smiling.

There was a shuffling from behind one of the tables.

"Be quiet" whispered a disembodied voice which Tia thought sounded suspiciously like her friend, Finley.

Jamie laughed, "It's ok guys, you can come out now."

"Surprise!"

Tia's friends had been huddled behind a chair and were now popping out.

There were about seven hundred there altogether. Of course there weren't! In all there was only about two friends each. You see, Jamie and Tia were not much liked at school. Ever since they started as first years they had been ignored. It had all started when the sorting hat had put them into different houses.

FLASHBACK (of the sorting hat - ooh that rhymes!)!

I was watching the new first years hastily enter the hall, nerves showing in their tiny faces. I sang my song and watched them relax slightly. Then housed them one by one. I remember having to house several pairs of twins in the year group. One pair of which were the Zastyn twins.

'Zastyn, Jamie'

'SLYTHERIN!'

'Zastyn, Tia'

'GRYFFINDOR!'

I had never seen two faces so upset, it was a difficult decision to make, they loved each other, couldn't live apart but they were just _so_ different.

Now they were in their last year and things were still the same. But why did people hate them? Well, that's because they were constantly trying to unite the two houses - Gryffindor and Slytherin. Even though they were separated they still remained friends. Will they ever succeed in their conquest to join the two houses in peace and harmony?

No, at that point death eaters descended.

'EXPELLADEATHICUS' they shouted, and everyone died, except Hedwig.

No not really because that would be stupid and a very short story. So lets tell the real story of the twins struggle to unite Hogwarts…


	2. Snuggly Snaggle Puffs

BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM! 'Move your body like a hairy troll! A-learning to rock and roll!' The music thumped along the floor, I was stood by the drinks table getting some more butterbeer as the door to the room of requirements opened. I turned to see my sister's friend from Gryffindor, Taylor, come in again, she had been down to the kitchens. 572

'WHO'S THE DADDY?' She yelled holding up two bottles of firewhiskey above her head and spinning on the spot. Tia, the rest of her friends and my couple of friends on the dance floor cheered. I couldn't help but laugh a little. Still with the firewhiskey above her head Taylor kicked the door closed and bounded over to the drinks table.

'Hey Jamie' she said, she put down the drinks and poured two goblets out, then immediately bounded off over to Tia again, giving her one of the drinks. I went over to my friends, as the song switched and carried on with the party.

By the end of the night barely any of us could stand straight, a couple of the girls, and of course by that I mean all of them, had at least some of their makeup smeared or running down their face from the heat. Naturally though I had no idea about this because by this point I was so drunk it was difficult to even sit straight, let alone stand. Suddenly someone, though I don't remember who, shouted about it being past curfew – by a few hours, and we were going to be 'in deep doggy doo-doo' if we were to get caught. So with that we magi-taped our mouths closed, it seemed a good idea at the time because we couldn't resist talking with that much influence from alcohol, and made a break for it through the halls of Hogwarts.

I got lost several times within the next hour, at one point I found myself in the trophy room, with no recollection of how I got there and had to start my search for the Slytherin common room again. My couple of friends from the party had disappeared completely and it was a good thing because tonight was definitely not my lucky night. Next I found myself in the Great Hall, I was sure I could find my way from here.

'Meow, Purrrrr' a sound reverberated around the room, I span, knocking over several chairs as I did so. By the door a cat slunk out, to get Mr Filch I thought. I looked around the hall, there was nowhere to hide, I moved some chairs out of the way and hid under the table, it seemed the best hiding place I could think of but moments later the cat was back to where I had been standing and pawed at the chairs I had moved. Busted.

'Who's in there?' Mr Filch's voice echoed across the otherwise silent hall, he walked to the cat and shoved some chairs away from the table, then I saw his face emerge, the melted look of his wax like face against the thin moonlight shining through the windows, it was horrifying!

'well, well, well' he sneered 'good night for Snape'

I don't remember how I moved from the frozen flagstones of the great hall floor, but the next thing I knew I was in the tiny office of Professor Snape, he was leaning over his desk glaring at me viciously. Filch had blocked the exit by standing in front of the door and all I could smell was his overpowering odor stenching the entire room, or was that me?

'you _**stink**_ of alcohol' Oh so it was me then... 'and you are out of bed after hours! This requires massive punishments!' Snape continued to spit the words at me like darts, I leaned backwards slightly, I found the farther away I was from him the less disgusting he looked. I braced myself for my fate, I was prepared to wager it would be at least 100 points lost and a detention.

In the morning I woke with a throbbing headache and dragged myself back to the great hall, I couldn't use the excuse of illness as I had been planning because of being caught last night, I walked past the giant hourglasses by the front door to the school and looked into the glass. There was about one third of the green beads of sand missing from the hour glass (around 300 points), all because of me, though we were still in front of Gryffindor, but only just. Snape would never take away so many points as to lose the lead. He found the idea of it ridiculous as head of house, and happily so, otherwise my life would be fit to end today at the hands of my house mates. I walked into the great hall, there were a few people yelling at me from the Slytherin table, many had already heard what had happened but my head was still thumping and I had even less tolerance than usual. I looked around for Tia and spotted her at the Gryffindor table, separated from the others from her house as usual apart from Taylor. I joined them both in silence, taking food from my own table with me to avoid even more people's complaints. I confided with Tia and Taylor about what had happened last night and they replied by shaking their heads at me.

'I was completely out of it too' Taylor laughed, she seemed to be reminding Tia rather than telling me, 'when I got back to the dorm I was out like a light, McGonagall apparently got asked to check everyone was in bed, we got back just in time.' I looked up the Gryffindor table and saw professor McGonagall sitting at the teachers table directly at the end. I looked back to the girls in front of me. I saw Snape join the teacher's table further down at the same time, he saw me spot him and sneered at me, or at least, I think he did. Suddenly all the food disappeared from the table, the only things left were the food in people's hands. I finished my toast quickly, grabbed my bag and made my way to my care of magical creatures lesson. Care of magical creatures is my all time favourite lesson in Hogwarts, I made my way down to professor Hagrid's hut near the dark forest and met the class down there. There was barely anyone here yet but nobody acknowledged my presence as I arrived. I hovered at the back of the class and as everyone arrived and we moved slightly into the forest I broke ahead of the crowd to reach the destination first and to be at the front; nobody cared and everyone kept pretending that I wasn't there. The lesson today consisted of an animal I hadn't ever paid attention to before.

'does anybody know wha' these crea'ures are?' Hagrid asked. I looked at the creatures that had been floating around us for the last five minutes, attracted by a small flame that somebody had conjured into a small jar, I was guessing this hadn't been conjured by Hagrid since he weren't allowed to use magic.

There were creatures of every colour, the closer they were to the jar the brighter they were, but there were ones from blue to pink, from yellow to red, there were bright white ones and ones of the darkest colour of shadows. They were just smaller than the average fly and were like little balls of fur, tufted slightly on top. They had two small but bright globe-like eyes that emerged beside each other in the centre of the fluff, always contrasting colours to the fur of the individual creature. They had wings on either side, level with the eyes, the only description that would fit them were golden snitch wings, however they had curls of fur that would stretch halfway along each wing, softening the look of the pointy ends. I noticed a soft, slightly squeaky chuckle that hung in the air, it got louder as the animals flew closer to me and I could only assume it was coming from them. I looked to the side and noticed one rather close to my face, it had a small mouth, close but not directly under the eyes. Somebody raised their hand a little bit behind me.

'ye'?' Hagrid prompted

'they're called Puffidub Al Snaglif, or Snaggle Puffs' the boy said,

'Snuggly Snaggle Puffs' a girl nearer the back giggled, I smiled, I recognised the voice, it was Taylor's and she must have followed me down, having walked with my sister part of the way out from the hall slowly as usual. I turned my head to confirm it was her, she didn't see me but I had been right. She had her hand out and one of the Snaggle Puffs were floating around above it, not wanting to stop moving or to fly away, it was slightly brighter than the others around it, I realised they must be brighter as they get warmer or go nearer warmer objects, like the flame.

'uh, Righ', ye' they're called Snaggle Puffs, by the ordinary wizard, though Puffidub Al Snaglif is the official name' Hagrid said, ignoring Taylor's comment, I turned back to the front. 'Snaggle Puffs are attra'ted to ligh' an' heat, and when they move a lo', or are near heat a long time, they hold hea' too. They can be caugh' easily and many wizards like to kee' 'em as pe's bu' there are loads of 'em in the wild still.' After this we simply had to take notes about the behaviour of the Snaggle Puffs for the rest of the lesson. Professor Hagrid would occasionally come out with things about the Snaggle Puffs as if he had just remembered them and I'd note those points down too. I thought about how Tia would like the creatures too and considered ways of getting some into the castle, Hagrid was right, they do seem like the perfect pets. I made a small envelope from a spare piece of parchment I had, and scooped a few Snaggle Puffs into it, then sealed the end with my wand. For a moment they tried to escape, pushing at the sides, the parchment heated slightly and began to gain a gentle glow. But soon the creatures settled down, glowing only with the heat of my hand. The rest of the lesson went quickly in comparison and before I knew it I was following Taylor at distance up the hill to the castle, and my next lesson.

_**x.X.x**_

_**A/N: Sorry this is a short and not very interesting chapter. I'll get more into it once we're on the move with the storyline. By the way, A/N means Author's Note(s).**_

_**Lizzy =]**_

_**Kyrsten's next XD – over to u LK :P**_


	3. The Drunken Encounter

_**(Tia)**_

Making my way back from the party, I was pretty dazed. Had I really drunk that much? My hair was plastered to my forehead and I could feel my make up running down my face.

Turning the corner, I suddenly realised I didn't know where I was. I could hear footsteps from somewhere ahead of me. I bumped off the walls as I went, the sound echoing around me. I hoped it wasn't a teacher heading my way.

I didn't mean to do it. Maybe I really had had too much to drink. He was in front of me before I even realised it. I just walked straight into him. How embarrassing!

I tripped and he caught me.

'Are you ok?' he asked.

I looked up at him. He was gorgeous. His soft green eyes and his short brown hair with that worried look on his face.

I had fancied Ryden for as long as I could remember. Not only was he good looking but his personality was just as good. He was kind, caring; everything I was looking for. Not that he'd ever want someone like me.

'Uh yeah sorry about that I'm fine,' I mumbled.

Oh god, I thought, I am so glad he can't hear what I was thinking.

I blushed.

It didn't seem to faze him; he just looked at me and winked. It made my heart melt.

And then he turned and walked away.

I have no idea how I finally made my way back to my room after that but I woke up fully clothed in the middle of the bed, the covers twisted round me. I dragged myself out of bed. My head was pounding. Feeling dizzy, I grabbed the dresser. As I steadied myself I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror on the wall opposite me. I looked awful!

After a good shower I joined Taylor in the great hall for breakfast.

'So where did you get to last night?' she asked. 'We turned around and you had gone. You didn't get back till at least half an hour after us.'

'Long story,' I replied, the events of last night flooding back into my head. I felt myself going red again.

I saw my brother making his way towards us, picking his way through the crowd. He looked as bad as I felt.

'Are you ok?' I asked as he joined us at the table.

'Snape caught me last night!' he exclaimed.

Me and Taylor both shook our heads. It was always him that got caught.

Just then the food disappeared. This was our cue. There was the scrapping of chairs and chattering as we all made our way to our next lessons.

Mine was the history of magic. Oh what joys!

These lessons were always boring. For a start there's the teacher, a ghost. When he died he just carried on teaching. And he just drones on and on and on and on…

Today was no exception. Goblin rebellions. I sat there listening and making notes. As the bell went I looked at the page in my notebook I had been using and saw I had been doodling hearts around Ryden's name. Looking around me to check no one had seen I hurriedly shoved my book into my bag and headed out of the lecture room.

Everyone has their own special place. We have one. Me, Taylor and Jamie. It's a little bench on the edge of the castle grounds, not too far away from Hagrid's cottage, hidden away from everyone. We come here often.

Some of my best memories are here. Where me and Taylor first touched a unicorn. Where me and Jamie came here the night our parents had died and sobbed in each other's arms. But more importantly where us three laughed, cried and had fun at our time at Hogwarts.

Little did I know that in the future it was to become even more special.

**(A/N: heehee you will find out about this in a future chapter :P)**

As I made my way there after my lesson I could smell the crisp morning breeze and hear the sounds of birds chirping as they flew by. The three of us always met here before any lessons we had together.

This place helped me relax so much. I drifted away day dreaming about me and Ryden when…

'Tiiiiii-aaaaaa!'

Taylor and Jamie were running towards me. I smiled, Jamie looked happier than he had this morning. Good, I thought, but then that wasn't surprising. He was with Taylor and I knew that he fancied her like crazy! I was forever teasing him about it.

'Hey guys!' I say as they bound over to me and sit either side of me on the bench.

'Got a surprise for you,' says Jamie opening his bag.

Taylor got up to help him retrieve something from his bag.

They'd make a good couple I think to myself. I'd never really noticed before. But stood next to each other they looked…well it just seemed to work. I smiled at the thought. Maybe I needed to do some match making there!

I was brought back down to earth when I heard the cutest squeaking noise coming from something in Jamie's hand. The noise was coming from a small envelope and when he opened it out flew three small creatures, two pink and one a light shade of blue. They were tiny and were like small balls of fluff, slightly tufted on the top with long slender wings beating crazily as they flitted around me.

'Wow! They are just the cutest things ever! And there eyes are so big and cute,' I said excitedly. 'What are they? Where are they from?'

I realised I was babbling and paused to let Jamie speak.

'There Snuggly Snaggle Puffs,' he said. He blushed. I saw Taylor smile.

**(A/N: For those of you that have not realised this is because of the moment they share in Hagrid's lesson together in the last chapter if that makes sense.)**

He continued, 'There great as pets apparently. So I thought I'd bring you some.'

'I love them, they're adorable,' I said as I jumped at him, throwing my arm around his neck. 'Thank you!'

'I thought you would,' he said. 'Now come on, we are already 20 minutes late for divination because of this little detour.

It was moment like this, moments when I was truly happy, that I almost forgot the troubles that we faced every day at Hogwarts. Almost…


	4. A Lesson To Remember

_**(Jamie)**_

I had caught up with Taylor by the time we had reached the end of the forest and just realised we had a lesson together next, and with Tia, so we went to meet her as usual at our bench. Of course this wasn't really _**our**_ bench, but it might as well be. We had been the only ones even nearby it at lunch and break times for the last _**7 years**_!

'Did you do your homework for this lesson?' Taylor asked me suddenly

'homework?' I questioned,

'The path of Neptune on Jupiter thing' she filled me in, I paused for a second then realised

'Oh! That homework. Yeah I have, you?'

'No. Do you think he'll ask for it in?' Taylor asked me,by 'he' she was referring to our teacher, one of the best teachers in school and definitely the most interesting: Firenze the Centaur.

'probably not.' I said, 'but if he does you can make an excuse and I'll help you later.'

'really? You'd be a life-saver!' announced Taylor, she stopped and put a single arm around me, Taylor's attempt at a half-hug, although she caught me off-guard and we almost slipped back down the hill towards the forest again. In the confusion this had caused her I got a whiff of her hair, I loved the smell of her coconut shampoo, it's a rare occasion when I get a chance to smell it, the odd time or so when she hugs me, or attacks me with Tia.

'well you're usually good at making excuses' I laughed a little, comfortable still with her arm gripped around me, she tried to put me into a headlock for a joke but gave up after she had barely started. She let me go and we walked up to the bench, now late.

'Did you like the Snaggle Puffs this lesson?' she asked me,

'you mean the Snuggly Snaggle Puffs?' I joked, Taylor looked shocked rather than getting me into a headlock this time, much to my dismay,

'You heard me say that?' she laughed

'the whole class did, even Hagrid' I said,

'oh... oh well' she said 'so what did you think of them?'

'They're nice, I caught some for Tia. I thought she'd like some for pets'

'good idea! And talk of the devil!' Taylor said, I looked ahead, Tia was already at our bench, how does she get there so fast? Taylor broke into a sprint I followed suit, 'TIIIII-AAAA!' she yelled. Tia looked up at us and grinned, it was here that I presented her with the Snaggle Puffs, but I'm sure she'll explain that to you.

Afterwards we headed up to the castle, 20 minutes late for our lesson, time must be on a treadmill at Hogwarts, and it's getting good at it too! When we reached the classroom we silenced ourselves and made our way inside. As we went inside the forest-like decoration of the room surrounded us, we closed the door slowly, quietly and made our way to the clearing where Firenze likes to teach, a few of the other students looked towards us as we came in and sat down but Firenze, this lesson had chosen to lecture rather than give activities to do, which meant that he hadn't even noticed when Finley, from our birthday party waved to us and Ryden Ashdown, a guy from Gryffindor, turned to us and said hi to Tia, we three laid down in a line, Taylor between my sister and I. Tia was closest to Ryden, I knew she liked him as she had told me but I don't think he knew it at all.

'Mercury and Pluto are crossing the first quarter while Neptune is nearing it's mid-year solstice' Firenze continued oblivious to our interruption.

'ask lover-boy if Firenze has asked for the homework' Taylor hissed at Tia, who asked as requested,

'what homework?' Ryden replied, Tia turned back and shook her head, giggling a little then turned back to Ryden to talk.

'looks like I wont need your help after all' Taylor told me, 'Firenze wont stop talking now, he's in his trance state again! We could throw trees at each other and he wouldn't realise.'

'Do you think he'll talk into break time again?' I asked her,

'I say, if he does, we get up and leave anyway.'

'He'll never know we were here.' I told her concerned, we weren't whispering as we knew there was no point, but Tia was whispering to Ryden and I think Taylor was trying to distract me from listening in to their conversation.

'Who cares?' she replied, 'You can stay and try to tell him it's break time if you like, but I'm not.'

'But we'll be said to be absent and we could get in trouble.' I suggested, Taylor laughed

'are you kidding? The most we'd get is a detention and we'd end up sitting in here listening to him lecture again.' I shrugged and fell silent. I attempted to listen to Tia's conversation to see if Taylor _**had**_ been trying to distract me but Taylor spoke again before I could catch onto their voices.

'do you want me to change the register? _**If **_he's taken it at all today?' Taylor said, spotting the register on the floor beside the centaur, I didn't answer, I wasn't sure if I wanted her to or not. She rolled onto her side, facing away from me.

'hey you two, stop the chatter for a sec' she said to Tia and Ryden, 'has Firenze taken the register today? Jamie's being a goody-two-shoes again.' Tia and Ryden laughed a little, I felt like an idiot.

'yeah' I heard Ryden reply eventually 'he has',

'thanks Hun' Taylor rolled to her stomach and looked at me, pulled her wand from her robe and pointed it at the register 'I'll mark us here, okay? Accio register' the register flew towards us and Taylor took out her quill to mark she, Tia and myself as present. Then she sent it flying back to it's place using a banishing charm. Tia soon after finished her conversation with Ryden, turned to us and for the rest of the lesson we held our own conversation, occasionally stopping to listen to part of the lecture. This is why we loved this lesson so much, apart from being able to be together and with the people we liked, occasionally when Firenze wanted to lecture us, we could talk freely even to somebody like Ryden who wouldn't often be seen with people like _**us**_- we were traitors of our houses and rejects of the school, to be close with somebody from the battling house of our own was considered to be the _**worst**_ kind of betrayal.

As we had expected Professor Firenze talked into break and lead by Taylor, then by Ryden and his friend we all left the classroom, completely unnoticed. As soon as we had left the doors of the classroom Ryden and his friends left us without as much as a goodbye. Tia didn't seem to be too bothered about this, we both knew about his popularity, if he was seen to be nice to us he would be rejected too.

'I wonder if he'll still be talking when his next class come in?' Taylor laughed. We all headed down to our bench again, as usual the area was deserted, the way we liked it. I by this point was walking ahead of the other two but as I reached the bench and turned around I noticed they were talking about quidditch, this was a typical Tia conversation, I couldn't fly and didn't really understand the game but Tia loved it. I stayed silent until they finished the conversation, it hadn't taken too long but by the time they had finished we noticed somebody or something was moving around behind us. I turned around, expecting bullies or someone to just simply pass by barely noticing us. Hagrid had come out of his hut, about 5 metres away from us and was meeting three sixth years by his door. Everybody in school knew who these three were, for better or for worse: Harry Potter, Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger.

Of course, Harry Potter is _**the-boy-who-lived**_ a source of great detest in Slytherin and hope in Gryffindor. People say he's the _**chosen one**_ too, chosen to defeat he-who-must-not-be-named and is taking lessons with Dumbledore himself to, according to rumours, teach him how to defeat the dark wizard. Hermione Granger was a nerdy bookworm who had clung to the boys from her first year, yet almost every guy in school had seen her differently from my fifth year, her fourth, when the Yule Ball came to Hogwarts, along with a couple of other schools including Durmstrang home to the quidditch player Viktor Krum as my sister had _**never**_ let me forget. Of course this isn't the reason Hermione was seen differently, well it kind of wasn't, it was truly because the bookworm had gotten Krum smitten over her, suspected of using a love potion by many girls in my own year group, then turned up to the Yule Ball with him at Christmas in a perfectly flattering gown and suddenly had the whole population of boys in the three schools chasing her. She was almost the only girl in school, other than Taylor that I would look at twice. Ronald Weasley wasn't so interesting but was definitely the point of affection for Hermione. He was simply poor but loyal to his few friends that he had, and we definitely weren't one of those.

'urgh! Teachers pets!' Taylor announced as the trio went inside the hut. I turned back to the two girls I was sitting with, I couldn't help but smile at the look of anger on Taylor's face, she always gets worked up at the sight of the so called _**golden trio**_ from Gryffindor, probably because they'd never give her or Tia a chance, though I've never seen them being particularly harsh either.

'Lets get out of here for a while before Taylor explodes' Tia suggested, she got up from the bench, Taylor and I copied and we made our way further towards the lake, although _**what**_ we were going to do now I had _**no**_ idea!


	5. In The Stars

***Tia***

He spoke to me today!

Ever since then I've been replaying the conversation over and over again in my head.

Arriving at Firenze's lesson late, me, Taylor and Jamie slipped in unnoticed. People were scattered around the floor listening to the lecture.

'Hi,' said a voice from behind me.

It was him.

With butterflies in my stomach, I laid down next to him, with Jamie and Taylor on my other side.

'Ask lover-boy if Firenze has asked for the homework yet,' Taylor hissed at me.

I made a face at her.

By now my heart was pounding. I turned to him and he smiled; that cheeky handsome smile that made him so popular.

He's just perfect, I thought to myself.

I blushed as I realised I was meant to be speaking.

'Uh has ummm homework been ummm,' I stammered.

He frowned, 'Homework?'

I giggled. He was cute even when frowning.

I turned to Taylor to let her know not to worry about the homework.

Turning back to Ryden, I noticed the smile had already returned to his face.

'Them two look quite cozy,' Ryden said moving closer to me.

I could feel his shoulder against mine.

'Yeah I think they'd make a good couple.' I replied.

'The're not the only ones,' he said winking at me.

'What do you mean?' I questioned.

He laughed and shook his head.

Suddenly realising what he had said I quickly changed the subject, 'So we have arithmancy next?'

'Yeah', he replied. 'Wish we didn't, I just don't understand numbers'

'I can help you!' I blurted out before I could stop myself.

'You mean like a tutor?'

'Yeah like a tutor.' I smiled. This could actually be fun and it would give Taylor and Jamie some time on their own.

'I'll hold you to that,' he said. 'Come sit next to me next lesson and we can get started right away.'

He winked at me again and then turned his attention back to the lesson leaving me speechless.

I couldn't concentrate for the rest of the lesson, the conversation playing over and over in my head. Had Ryden meant everything he'd said or was he joking. It was almost as if he was flirting, but could it be? Maybe just maybe the feeling could be mutual. Could he like me to? The thought made my heart leap.

Ryden turned back to me a while later and opened his mouth to say something just as, 'Hey you two stop the chatter for a sec.' It was Taylor. 'Has Firenze taken the register yet? Jamie's being a goody two shoes again.'

Ryden laughed so I did to. I know I probably embarrassed Jamie in front of Taylor but what could I do. I made a mental note to clear it up with him later.

'Yes he has,' said Ryden.

After that the rest of the lesson was mostly spent talking between me, Taylor and Jamie and occasionally Ryden and his friends joined in.

At break we snuck out. Ryden and his friends left us almost as if they hadn't been speaking to us during the lesson. But I saw that look in his eye as he walked away. The fleeting look he gave me as he turned and joined his friends.

Taylor and Jamie talked Quidditch all the way to 'our' bench. I love quidditch but my thoughts turned backed to Ryden. As much as I loved my brother and best friend, I longed to have someone of my own. Plus I really had to get them two together!

Moments later, we found ourselves making our way towards the lake after Taylor got herself worked up about the 'golden trio.'

As we neared we could hear chanting.

'DUEL, DUEL, DUEL, DUEL.'

A crowd of students were gathered in front of us. In front of them, two students stood face to face, wands out.

'Wonder what they're fighting about?' whispered Jamie.

One student, a tall male with blonde hair, took a step back and shouted 'Stupefy!'

A flash of light shot out of the end of his wand and hit his opponent square in the chest. After, looking dazed for a moment, he fell to the floor with a loud thud!

'Can't we get any peace anywhere round here?' complained Taylor just as the bell went for next lesson.


	6. The Ideal Lesson

_**Jamie**_

As we arrived down near the lake we saw a random, large group of students gathering around another pair of students. Before we even saw what was going on we knew, from the chants for them to keep duelling. The first sight we did see however was one of the students, the tall one and I'm pretty certain he was from Slytherin, cast stupefy directly at the other and had them keeling over backwards seconds before the bell rang for the next lesson.

'Can't we get _**any**_ peace around here?' Taylor moaned. Nobody seemed to notice the bell other than Taylor, I had barely taken it in myself, the duel did seem to be over though, the tall student went over to his friends and high-fived them, while several other students ran to the guy still on the floor. Moments later Professor McGonagall ran over to the group,

'What are you all doing over he-?' she asked sternly, then the student laying on the ground sat up, the spell had worn off 'what happened here?' she ordered of the group. The shorter student jumped up and flung themselves towards the taller one who had hexed him, forgetting his wand and throwing punched instead. McGonagall rushed forward and pulled them off of each other.

'EVERYBODY GO TO THEIR LESSONS NOW OR YOU WILL GET A DETENTION!' she roared, everybody scattered towards the castle accept the students that had been fighting. I made to walk away,

'wait I want to see what happens' Taylor told me, I shook my head and carried on. She and Tia followed moments later, possibly having been confronted by McGonagall but I hadn't stopped to ask, I had astronomy and it's probably the furthest lesson you could have in the school, since it was in the tallest tower of the school and right on the opposite side of the castle that I was now. This was another lesson I had with Taylor, however we didn't have Tia with us this time.

Taylor and I pushed our way through the corridors and almost ran through the multiple courtyards until we reached the astronomy tower.

By the time we had made our way up all the stairs through the tower and found our seat in the classroom we had missed ten minutes of the lesson. The rest of the class were drawing up star charts for Friday night's stargazing session. They were basically compulsory after school clubs, only available to our class, and occasionally the lower year groups classes too on special astrological events. It was times like these that astronomy strongly reminded us of divination. Star charts were one of the easiest things to do in astronomy, we'd look at our text book and look at where the planets have been on this day for the last five years (there are several pictures on one page, so it doesn't take as long as it sounds) and finding the pattern to decide where they _**SHOULD**_ be now. Working together, it didn't take Taylor and I long to finish, giving Taylor extra time to talk as she loves to do, but in this lesson without Tia here, she actually likes to talk to _**me**_.

'did you hear about the results of the Appleby Arrows verses Wimborne wasps game this weekend?' Taylor asked me, while I finished putting the final details onto the star chart (I like to be precise), I looked up

'the what game?' I asked

'Quidditch of course!' she said 'Oh I forgot, you don't really like quidditch do you?'

'not really, sorry'

'oh well, I'll explain, well the Appleby Arrows and Wimborne wasps are like the _**ultimate**_ rivals of the national Quidditch teams! And the game on Saturday, it was... well it was like a _**bloodbath**_!' Professor Sinistra looked over as she heard the words leak from Taylor's mouth and coughed slightly. I looked up at her quickly then to Taylor who had her eyes on the professor, waiting for her to look away before giggling.

'Sorry, I think Quidditch is a better subject for you to discuss with Tia. I'm only going to get lost in the matter.' I told her, before she tried to carry on.

'Jamie we have just _**got**_ to get you more interested in quidditch, I don't know how you don't like it. Half the wizarding world are obsessed and the other half follows the sport anyway, you'd probably get more friends if you did like it.' I shrugged, so she moved on. 'Well what would you prefer to talk about?' I considered for a moment,

'what do you want to do during our free lesson next?' I asked,

'eat probably. Then when Tia gets out of Arithmancy we can spend the whole of lunch talking about what happened with Ryden without my questions being interrupted by eating!' Taylor laughed, but at the mention of Ryden's name I became suspicious.

'_**about what happened with Ryden**_?' I asked 'they're in a lesson, how much _**could**_ happen?'

'nothing _**that**_ interesting, but Tia's helping him out today, he says he doesn't understand something in the lesson apparently'

'so?'

'so with them actually talking, they might talk about other things'

'what exactly is going on between him and Tia at the moment?' I asked suspiciously again

'Oh Jamie, don't be so big brother-y. You're twins. Tia can both look after herself as well as you can look after yourself' we fell silent for a moment.

'would you like to go flying in our spare lesson?' she asked

'not really, I prefer to keep my feet on the ground. But I can come sit in the stands if you want to fly?' I offered

'I'm not sure yet' she pondered 'I just thought it'd get you more interested in quidditch'

'I doubt it. I've flown before' I told her,

We carried on talking and the end of the lesson didn't take long after the conversation had really started up. We took our time to pack our things away and leave the classroom, avoiding the rush of the corridors. Taylor headed to the door onto the almost entirely open roof of the astronomy tower, I followed. She looked over the grounds, and sat down so her legs were over the edge of the tower but at chest height there was a bar to stop her from falling, we did this every week until the noise of the corridors calmed down before making our way to wherever we wanted to go for our free lesson alone. I sat down beside Taylor, facing the opposite direction and leaning on the bar instead. When I had first done this it was a feeling of about to drop but now I was used to it, as long as Taylor was there to distract me.

'its a nice day, we could go swimming in the lake' I suggested

'or we could check out the snaggle puffs again' she suggested, 'it'll be cold soon and I'd really like some to keep warm'

'the forest is out of bounds except for when Hagrid takes us in during lessons.' I told her

'it's barely _**in**_ the forest, its on the edge _**and**_ in a clearing' she argued 'either way, it wouldn't take long. Could you make another envelope thing for me? Like you did with the ones you caught for Tia?'

'I suppose, but I'm not going into the forest'

'well you can stand guard then' she laughed.

Soon we realised the school had fallen silent apart from the very quiet murmur of Professor Sinistra teaching her next class. I got up and Taylor followed me, we headed for the forbidden forest, passing our bench on the way. Taylor ran to the trees and grabbed the closest one,

'wait here. I wont be a moment.' She told me and ran off into the woods. I stared after her to see her run towards where we had found the snaggle puffs in lesson, it was half an hour past noon now yet still with the thickness of the forest it didn't take long for her to be consumed in darkness. It took no longer than a minute for me to realise what dangers there were in the forest that could hurt Taylor so I started to walk after her. I found the darkness fold around me as usual, as I followed the path, but I soon found the clearing. Taylor had conjured a flame from the end of her wand and was trying to catch the attracted snaggle puffs with her other hand, but they kept managing to escape before she sealed the envelope. I walked over and took the envelope of parchment off of her, then with one sweep through the air I caught a few of the creatures and sealed the envelope with my own wand. It glowed warm for a moment and Taylor took them out of my hand.

'thanks' she smiled at me 'lets get going before we get caught. I'll race you to our bench' I had barely agreed by the time she had started running, I darted after her and caught up with her in seconds, I was taller than her so my legs were longer,

'you cheated' I told her, laughing a little as I jogged beside her.

'no I didn't. You were just too slow to start!' she laughed back, slightly more out of breath than myself. We ran practically side by side for a moment, I didn't want to leave her behind in the forest alone, we soon saw the edge of the forest again. Surprisingly Taylor managed to speed up even more, I followed suit and we stayed equal for a moment longer, we were almost at the bench, Taylor jumped to the side- in front of me, I had to slow down to avoid running straight into her.

'Oh that's how you want to play it?' I asked, speeding up again. I had an idea, I ran ahead of her a little bit, and stopped in front of her, I reached out to her waist and tickled her until she stopped running then I began to run again myself. Seconds later she caught me and tickled me and I tickled her back, we ended up reaching the bench at the same time, laughing hard from the tickles.

When we finally calmed down Taylor looked up at the blue sky, her eyes squinted very slightly, it was an oddly warm day for September, the sun was out and barely any clouds were to be seen. I looked back down to Taylor, she had gone from the bench and had decided to lay down on the grass. She had somehow managed to get take off her cloak and jumper and was using them as a pillow and a blanket before I had even realised she had moved.

'what are you doing?' I asked, amused

'making the most of the weather.' she said simply, she closed her eyes against the sunlight so I just watched her sunbathe until the end of the lesson.

'maybe we should go to the Great Hall now?' I suggested to Taylor as the lesson ended, 'to meet Tia?' she opened her eyes slightly to look at me.

'fine' she agreed, she got up off of her cloak and put her jumper on, then she put on her cloak and dusted off the pieces of grass which had stayed attached to it. We made our way slowly to the Great Hall and sat at the Gryffindor table, Tia wasn't here yet so we got back into conversation.

'so have you opened any of your birthday presents yet?' Taylor asked me, I shook my head, I hadn't even thought of opening presents yet, they were all sitting in the trunk at the end of my bed having been too drunk last night to consider them.

'good because I forgot to give you my present' Taylor said, 'I didn't want you to think I just hadn't got you anything. I was just having too much fun to remember at the party. I'll give you the present at the end of school' I smiled

'thanks. Has Tia opened any presents yet? Do you know?' I asked

'not sure. Why?' she replied

'well if she hasn't we could open them together at our bench after lessons finish.' I suggested. Suddenly we spotted Tia come through the doors to the Great Hall, 15 minutes late for lunch. She legged it over to us and threw herself into the seat beside Taylor, grinning, she clearly had a story to tell, to Taylor, if not to me too.


End file.
